Review: Justice’s Hyperdrama Spectacle—A Celebration Across All Albums
On the final stop of their 2024 North America tour, Justice delivered a performance for fans, both new and old, that absolutely sealed their brilliance. You can look at this […]
Review: Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein— Beautiful Handmade Horror
Something very wonderful is on stage at the Studebaker Theater this pre-Halloween weekend. A haunting affair, one part horror and another strange beauty, the Chicago-based Emmy-award-winning performance collective Manual Cinema […]
Review: Some Like It Hot, We Get It Tepid
Billy Wilder’s 1959 Some Like It Hot is widely considered a perfect film: witty and surprising, silly and sexy—a culmination of Wilder’s brilliant career and a showcase for its stars […]
Review: Nova Linea Musica Is a World Class Addition to Chicago’s Musical Soundscape
Chicago is the premier city for the arts. Our musical scene is to be envied. We have two wonderful orchestras that play traditional classical music and a wealth of new […]
Review: In Remy Bumppo’s Dear Elizabeth, Two Poets Reflect on Their Lives and Work in Their Letters
A pair of poets, in love with words, are sort of, possibly, in love with each other. Or not. That’s the theme of Dear Elizabeth, an epistolary play by Sarah Ruhl. […]
Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Babes with Blades Is a Fun and Feisty Take on Fairyland
Each iteration of A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents a different version of the confounding and enchanted woods in which the characters lose themselves. Audience members walk in, wondering how this […]
Review: Joffrey Ballet Stages a Literary Masterpiece with Marston’s Atonement, Adapted from Ian McEwan’s Novel
I’ve often said that a film retelling will destroy a brilliant literary work and a mediocre book can make a great film. My example [of the latter] is Mario Puzo’s […]
Dispatch: Spend the Weekend at Chicago International Film Festival, with Films on Politics, History and Family
Chicago International Film Festival continues through October 27, with films and events taking place around Chicago. Follow our Chicago International Film Festival tag for all our latest posts on recommendations […]
Review: The Art of Ron Mann: The Healing Journey of a Vietnam Vet at National Veterans Art Museum
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, most Americans had mixed feelings about the Vietnam War because it was a controversial conflict that for many had moral ambiguity. Even though […]
Review: The Altar Of Drone—Boris Perform Amplifier Worship at the Ramova Theatre
25 years ago Japanese metal giants Boris released their aptly titled sophomore studio album Amplifier Worship, a landscape-terraforming ode to the power of volume and frequency. Drone, Doom, Sludge, all […]
Review: At Goodman Theatre, Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust Explores the Inner World of Grief and Learning to Thrive
Grief is born out of trauma and thrives in loneliness. Playwright Eboni Booth creates a devastating inner world of grief in Primary Trust and builds a shell of a world […]
Preview: Scott Lucas Brings LIFERS to the Music Box, Local H Brings Whatever Happened To P.J. Soles to Metro
A few years ago I wrote a piece arguing that Local H was one of the hardest working and most consistent rock bands currently in existence. This remains very true. […]